Author: Angel Martinez

So the championship match didn't go as planned. I fought a very tough fight against a Russian fighter. I believe I could have won the fight just as much as I lost it but I came home with silver. Win or lose, I would never change this experience for the world.

It's been a long week of waiting, but Friday was finally my first day of competition. Since I received a bye, I was in the morning session--the very first fighter up in bout 1 to decide if I'd be advancing into the gold medal round tomorrow. My opponent was from Kazakhstan, which is one of the strongest boxing countries in the world. I believe their national sport is boxing.

It's day 3 here in Germany. The weather this morning was on the colder side, but we started off as usual with our normal morning workout. After the workout, we went to what was basically like a Wal-Mart to get some groceries and supplies for the week.

It's day one in Germany today. The team landed in Berlin after an eight-hour flight and multiple delays. From Berlin, we took a two-hour drive to where we would be staying, training and competing for the following two weeks.